@nutman451 Nah, you have to take account on how it all played out by looking back at earlier chapters, I think this is the best both komi and manbagi do to answer the current situation especially if Oda regarded this chapter to be initial build up for the upcoming valentine arc he mentioned before.
Komi in all her life never had a girl bff before, manbagi is literally her very first bff where she thought she can be comfortable enough to the point she talked to her verbally more than she did to tadano. The fear of losing her only bff only to win tadanobowl feels natural to me, and perhaps it also explained why during the stair talk on 2nd year festival arc she gave manbagi a pass with her neutral answer to chase after tadano just to maintain status quo dynamic between them three. And don't forget this is komi's first experience in handling between close circle conflict that involved her bff and love interest so it's kinda understandable that she took this approach to avoid losing neither of them because of her fearful nature, even though we knew it all will reach its conclusion whether she liked it or not.
Meanwhile manbagi needs to learn that just because a guy is nice to you doesn't mean he's interested back at you. She made a mistake back in mid school with uesugi in ch 142 and now she made that mistake again and this time unaware with her new bff's love interest. Considering she was as fearful as komi in losing her only bff in 2nd year class for tadanobowl, what manbagi did by asking komi for permission makes sense because she simply doesn't want to go over komi's back, after all komi did give her the chance to fight in tadanobowl. And let me remind you both of these dorks are as clueless as they were depicted in previous chapters that explained their lack of knowledge in flirting,
gaining initiative or winning the race are not the theme here, it's all up to tadano who he will choose based on his own experience dealing with both of them.
Isagi and ase are a weird addition here I agree. But as I said before if Oda really intend this chapter as initial buildup, then them knowing komi and manbagi is fighting over tadano will be consequential for post-confession arc to which each one of them will have a role in forming a new dynamic between komi and manbagi, at least that's what I saw.
Also is
@xystus your another account? Why is his comment is so similar with your comment? Is he just copied yours? Or is this just another MD server bamboozle wtf